I’m starting this conversation to make some suggestions to improve Refund or Chargeback Policy of Fiverr in case of disputes filed by buyers through payment vendors.

I’m sure most of you guys have experienced some order cancellations due to chargeback and PayPal disputes. You may have received an email like:

“Hi [Your Username], We have been informed that a dispute was opened for your order FO4XXDE7XXE2: [Your Gig Title]. As a result, we are forced to cancel this order and ask that you discontinue your work. Please note that in some cases disputes are nothing more than temporary holds that are put on funds to make sure that they were authorized by the buyer. The dispute does not indicate that the buyer initiated it. If the dispute gets resolved, the buyer will receive an offer to reorder your gig. Thanks, The Fiverr Team”

or

“A dispute was opened via PayPal for your order FO25XXAAFXX3: [Your Gig Title]. As a result, we have to cancel this order and ask that you discontinue your work. If the dispute is resolved, the buyer will receive an offer to reorder your Gig.”

But I’m sure you never received your funds back, right? I have lost over $1500 just because of unethical buyers who filed chargeback for some orders placed here at Fiverr.

I have faced the same issue a few months back and when I contacted the Fiverr Customer care to resolve this issue, they said “we are not in a position to help you because it is beyond our control”.

I understand that there can be some strict policies, terms and conditions set by other parties such as payment vendors, etc involved in Fiverr business, but as Fiverr is a leading company, they should be in a strong position to negotiate with the payment vendors regarding their terms and conditions to resolve such issues. At least, the sellers should be allowed to deal with the payment vendor to prove that the work requested by the buyer is actually delivered. If there are some disputes, everything can be resolved mutually by dealing with buyers. Or, fiverr team should do the same on behalf of sellers because there are some instances we are left with frustration just because an order got cancelled due to a chargeback filed by the buyer through his credit card company or PayPal.

If you faced such issues, you would agree with the fact that, in such cases, sellers have no protection at all. Buyer’s account may be restricted, but what is the point of doing so because they can simply create a new account and start doing transactions using another payment method. Also, it is worth mentioning here that it is essential to evaluate the dispute carefully because there can be some sellers who try to get paid without delivering satisfactory output. So, final decision has to be made after reviewing everything carefully.

In case of fraudulent activity; for instance, “Any person that may use a stolen payment method, such as a credit card or hacked Paypal account, to process an order through a third-party payment system to create an order on Fiverr.” cancelling an order is beyond the control of Fiverr and it is essential to cancel such transactions. But, when it comes to an intentional chargeback (unethical buyer behaviour), Fiverr should handle such cases with utmost care because sellers are losing their funds even after working hard to complete an order.

Please share your thoughts because this chargeback issue should be resolved soon tomake Fiverr a better place for everyone to work

Yeah, but if we stand against this, we can make this a safer place for both sellers and buyers in the near future And, keep in mind that such cases are rare because I lost $1500+ and I have earned over $250,000 working here on Fiverr. I’m grateful for the opportunity Fiverr provided me with. So, don’t worry about such buyers, work hard to make all your clients happy and at the end of the day, you will be successful

It would be nice if there would be some support for users that are particularly hard hit by this, like the girl in the other thread (the tragic cases). I know that costs money, but it could also be in the form of an insurance, where you can protect yourself from fraudulent chargebacks by paying a small amount of extra commission on your gigs (if wddweeras1 is any metric, that would be less than 1 percent). If a chargeback occurs, the ‘insurance’ will make up for the lost money, provided that the chargeback was not caused by your own mistake.

This might seem a bit a strange solution, but I am afraid we can’t do anything about the ToS of PayPal and other payment companies. Or we should impose a levy on those buyers that use these payment methods and make that the insurance premium.

when it comes to an intentional chargeback (unethical buyer behaviour), Fiverr should handle such cases with utmost care because sellers are losing their funds even after working hard to complete an order.

This happens to any business that takes Paypal or credit cards. Sellers of all kinds on any type of platform or in any store face this problem. It is a necessary evil.

Consumers will be afraid to use Paypal or credit cards if they don’t feel sure they can get a refund if there is some problem. It’s a normal, if unpleasant, part of doing business, whether it’s on fiverr or any place else. So welcome to the world of business. This is simply one of the costs we have to factor into the total costs we face.

It seems you missed the point. I’m trying to imply that there should be a resolution process in place. When it comes to PayPal disputes, both Buyer and Seller can come up with their own claims. But in our case, there’s no option for us, Fiverr Sellers, to file a counter claim. Since Fiverr is one of the leading companies, they can surely negotiate with PayPal, etc and come up with a resolution process.

We are not dealing directly with Paypal. We are dealing with fiverr since it is their Paypal account. There are times when fiverr will contest the Paypal dispute on behalf of a seller, usually if the amount is large. You can always request that fiverr dispute the chargeback.

Again, you missed the point [quote=“misscrystal, post:11, topic:99259”]
We are not dealing directly with Paypal.
[/quote]
Everyone knows that. I said [quote=“wddweeras1, post:10, topic:99259”]
Since Fiverr is one of the leading companies, they can surely negotiate with PayPal, etc and come up with a resolution process.
[/quote]

And, [quote=“misscrystal, post:11, topic:99259”]
There are times when fiverr will contest the Paypal dispute on behalf of a seller
[/quote]
Yes, I heard that too, but I lost over $2000; they never took actions to recover funds

@wddweeras1
Do you mind me asking how did that happen? Did the buyer seem off to you, did you suspect it might had happened? Also how long after you delivered the gig, until your funds were retracted and was it from 1 client only?

I just opened a ticket before I saw this. I don’t know why my orders were disputed as it just gives me generic information. However, it should only be fair that Fiverr creates a way for them to respond back to any chargebacks. They can create a way that if any chargebacks occur then there should be an opportunity for the stellar to provide proof of purchase. Or let the seller know where the dispute is coming from so that we as the seller can make our counter to the chargeback at least.

To just say that things are out of your control is not always true and I hope Fiverr developers enable a way to do so. Becsuse judging from everyone’s feedback and my own loss from my first major order as a new Fiverr seller it definitely leaves some anxiety about who you are dealing with.

Also I’d like to point out that businesses have the opportunity to reply back to chargebacks. I know because I deal with them often. Even eBay and Amazon have ways to protect both buyer and seller on chargebacks.

So I believe the real question is will Fiverr ever have the same capability? Did I get that right @wddweeras1

I just got a ticket saying two orders were closed worth $320. I really believe Fiverr support should push back against the bank that got the dispute and show proof of the buyer ordering services. It’s pretty disappointing that this is happening to hard working sellers.